sunsational leopard

I'm not really sure why I keep disappearing for several days, but hey, here I am again!

I recently treated myself to the entire China Glaze Sunsational collection, AKA the 2013 summer neons...
You may remember that last year I won the entire set of 2012 neons and so for some reason I felt like I needed all the 2013 ones as well. Right? Right.
(Plus the majority of them are totally "me" colors so SHUSH.)

I haven't yet had a chance to swatch them all but I've worn a few, and here's one of the ways I wore them.

The purple polish is China Glaze - That's Shore Bright and I think it is already safe to say that it is my favorite of the collection. It is a fantastic bright purple creme, I wouldn't call it neon but it is very vibrant. Full-on neon polishes tend to look funny on me so I am really happy with this collection overall because none of them are eye-searing, they're all just really bright and fun.
The formula of TSB is fantastic - it needed just two coats and had no application issues.

The green is China Glaze - Highlight of My Summer. This one was a little more finicky to apply, and it will drag if you aren't careful to use a light touch and let it dry just a tiny bit longer between coats. If you let it drag, you'll need three coats to cover your bald spots, but if you're careful you can get away with two.
Despite that minor annoyance, I still adore this polish and I love how it is like a neon pastel.

I did the leopard print freehand with a dotting tool.

NEON PASTELS. GIVE ME ALL OF THEM.

China Glaze Fairy Dust vs. OPI Yule Love This Silver

A reader (Miss Intensity Nails, to be exact) commented on my last post, asking if I could shed some light on the difference between China Glaze - Fairy Dust and OPI - Yule Love This Silver.
The two bottles were nearby so instead of just telling her, I thought I would show her!

(Posted this nice bottle shot on my Instagram.)

These are both clear holographic topcoats with very fine silver holo glitter. What's the difference?

One is much more dense than the other. That's the OPI ont he left and CG on the right.
Yule Love This Silver is more glitter-packed than Fairy Dust.

Shown is just one coat of each over the color I was already sportin', China Glaze - Shell-O from the new Sunsational collection for summer. I bought all 12 of those babies and I can't wait to show them all off to you guys!

Probably a neon wasn't the best color to do this comparison on, but hey, work with what ya got.
Both these topcoats are very sparkly and add that extra oomph to any mani, but I prefer the OPI just because it has more glitter and is more sparkly!
But the CG is nice for when you're looking for a more subtle touch of glitter.

I hope this comparison did the trick :)

i lily love this polish

Hola!

I've posted about OPI's I Lily Love You before, but here's another post because it's so great.

This time, I've layered it over OPI - Pink Friday, and I added OPI - Yule Love This Silver on top for a little added sparkle.

Pink and sparkly nails can always cheer me up!

Aaaaand don't forget to follow me on Instagram where I posted a nice bottle pic while I was doing this mani.

Have a great day!

spongey springy mani

I liked the new Essie spring polishes so much that I wore two manis with them in one week! That's craziness.

I decided again that I wanted to wear all four colors at once. So I did this sponged/blotted look! (With glitter on top, of course.)

To get this look, I started by painting all of my nails with Essie - Bond With Whomever, the darker of the two purples.
Once that was dry, I added a coat of Essie - Avenue Maintain (blue) and then quickly I blotted most of it off with a balled-up tissue. This removes most of the wet polish but leaves some in a cool textured pattern. And the results are different every time!
I then did the same thing with Essie - Go Ginza (lighter purple) and Essie - Madison Ave-hue (pink.)

On top of all that, I added Sonoma Nail Art - Wine Country Wedding, a really cool white glitter.

It looks a little bit acid-trippy, right? Haha! I'm loving it!
I got a ton of compliments on these nails, too. What do you guys think?

stamping FAQ has been updated!

Hi everyone! I kinda took a week off from my blog last week... Not sure why but I just did. Perhaps it will motivate me to post more this week!

I realized that my Stamping FAQ post needed some serious updating so I've just done that and then updated my other pages as well. And then I reverted back to my old blog template because I missed it!

As well, I added a link to my Instagram because I love that shiz.
Aaaaand just so this post is not photo-free, here's a picture from my IG. I've been crocheting a lot lately...

I crocheted this My Little Pony!! Princess Sparkle. Isn't she adorable? I made her for my friend Staci and it was really hard to give her away... Perhaps I should make my own!

Now... to write some nail posts. Have a great day!